Wolf and Rose
by mocon52
Summary: A fledgling hunter. A mysterious disease. A new land. With less than a year to reach G-rank before the virus wracking her body ends her life, does Cecilia Emand and her new, eccentric teacher have what it takes to save herself and her new island home before the clock runs out?


"So, uh, what's with the parka? It's like a hundred degrees."

The question tore Cecilia's green speckled eyes from the short sword they had been glued to for the past hour or so, her thoughts her only solace from the unrelenting shaking and sporadic jumps the sand skip experienced flying across the desert sands. Yet, her thoughts were much more anxiety inducing than the ship, or any of the other fledgling hunters aboard it, including the average looking 20-something who had finally turned his attention to the girl after chatting up most of the other passengers huddling together on the benches of the ship's main cabin, his nappy brown curls slapping his forehead with every minute dip and swell. His Jaggi armor, much more expensive looking than the dull fabric of the starting gear of the other hunters on their way to Val Habar, glinted in the dim Thunderbug lanterns of the long hunter's cabin.

She gave him a friendly smile, "Oh, well, the island I'm from is always snowing so this is basically all I ever get to wear, I guess."

As awkward as she was with idle conversation, anything was better than the nervousness she had built up inside. A new life, a new beginning; those self-proclaimed promises are what got her to this point, far away from the bitter cold and the bitter people who lived in it, and the prospect of carrying up the sword and shield of her mother is what continued to drive her, yet she couldn't help her nerves. Being a hunter is enough of a challenge, being the kind she was aiming to be was another hassle in itself.

"Ah, a foreigner then, huh? What made you wanna come all the way to fire country from the frozen lands? Too tough for ya or something?", he asked with a slight sneer at the end, slumping back into the bench next to Cecilia.

"Actually, Koma doesn't have many large monsters on it, plus the villagers aren't big on hunters or hunting in general really. My mom knew the hall master in Val Habar, so I thought it'd be easier to just start here, you know?", she frowned, looking at the worn sword on her lap, and then grinned back at the hunter beside her, holding her hand out for a shake, "You must be from around here then, I'm Cecilia!"

The boy frowned, looking at the blonde like she had suddenly spawned another head. She too frowned in response, her hand still extended towards the hunter.

"Is something…wrong?" she asked nervously, noticing that more than just his eyes were on her judgingly.

He sighed, "I don't know what that is, but hunters don't do that here, and the name's Ain."

She retracted her hand immediately at his words, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know! It's nice to meet you though, I didn't mean…", she rambled, fumbling with her hands whilst attempting eye contact.

Ain simply laughed, "Damn, you really are a green horn, aren't ya? I bet you've never even seen a monster before!"

Before she could reply to his jab, she felt the bench creak beneath her as another hunter, a dreadlocked woman Cecilia believed was named Jasmine, leaned over to the hunter, "Would you lay off her already, Ain? Not everyone here has gotten a chance out in the field like you."

"Don't tell me what to do, newbie. A hunter isn't worth a zenny until they've hunted, I can say whatever I damn well please and I don't -"

"Well, actually," Cecilia interrupted abruptly to the shock of those surrounding her, "I have fought before, a few times actually."

"Really?", Jasmine asked incredulously, unaware that anyone aboard besides Ain even had the clearance from the guild to hunt.

She had the right to be suspicious. Even without the tight hunting regulations set fourth by the Hunter's guild and the Academy, Cecilia was anything but an imposing figure. Even with her boots and parka on, she barely broke 5 feet tall, and her gentle features and incredible thinness made her look like a gust of wind could blow her right off the ship. The boy scoffed at her words.

"Yeah, right, with that relic?," He pointed at the worn blade on her lap, "You couldn't even kill Anteka with that thing. What did you hunt, Popfish?"

"I used to…" Cecilia started, a tinge of anger in her voice. It was one thing to insult her, she was used to that kind of abuse, but the sword and its legacy was another matter entirely. But, just as she began her retort, Jasmine interjected.

"Big talk from the guy who's only ever fought Jaggi in the Primal. Did you even fight, or did you have Daddy take care of them for you?". She also seemed visibly annoyed with Ain, who glared back at her with hate filled eyes.

"…I fought…"

"Don't talk down to me, you Getty freak.", he spat like the word was poison. Cecilia had never heard that word before, but she could tell by the more hushed tones of the crowd around her that it wasn't to be taken lightly.

Jasmine glared intensely then, eyes alight. "What was that?", she asked threateningly.

"…Look guys, I…"

"You heard me, Ge-tty-fr-…", he started mockingly, sounding out the insult much to the chagrin of the girl.

"Are you two gonna let the kid speak already or are you continue with the pissing match?"

The volume of the bustling cabin, including that of the two combatants, immediately dropped to next to nothing at these words. The speaker of said words was siting across the narrow cabin on the opposite bench, arms crossed stoically with her back against the wall. She wore a full set of armor made out of some kind of glossy, white metal, covering her whole-body sans her middle, which was decked out with silver scale mail, and a cape of what looked to be heavily embroidered red, gold, and purple silk lined with fluffy white fur. The most intimidating part of this armor, however, was the helmet. The helmet, made of the same material as the rest of the set, depicted the head of a snarling wolf with fangs like daggers and fur like the cape, the golden eyes of which had a gaze that Cecilia could feel piercing through her like an arrow.

Cecilia felt a cold chill run up her spine. Throughout this whole journey from the surrounding desert villages to Val, the armored figure hadn't spoken, hadn't moved, she was like a statue. No one even knew she was a woman until right then from the gruff yet feminine tone of her voice, and most still had their doubts. The one thing everyone on that ship knew for certain was that she was much, much higher in the guild than anyone aboard, or even those they had ever seen before by the crest on her breastplate, a sign of a G-rank hunter. The running and most plausible theory on the ship was that she was a scout for the guild, looking for the best talent aboard. Yet, no matter how many times the passengers tried to get a rise out of her through stories of their accolades, or just by plain begging for her attention by a certain Jaggi garbed hunter, she wouldn't so much as open her eyes. That is, until right then.

The room remained silent as the hunter rose from her bench and began walking over to Cecilia who clutched her little sword with bated breath.

"Is this your sword?", the woman asked, to which the smaller hunter replied with a nod, unsure of whether or not to actually speak. "May I see it?"

Ever since Cecilia had received the sword, she had never, ever let anyone handle it besides her. It was her only treasure, what she cared about most. She looked down at it with a perturbed look while the wolf hunter held her hand out.

Surprisingly, the hunter just giggled disarmingly at the gesture, causing Cecilia to look up, confused. "You can say no, kid. I'm not gonna bite or anything, just wanna see how well you've listened to it."

While she didn't quite understand what the hunter meant by that, she couldn't help to feel compelled by the hunter's good-natured reply, like she suddenly had changed from an imposing figure to a dear friend. "No, it's alright, here.", she replied anxiously, trying her hardest to muster up a nervous smile as she handed the blade to the hunter.

The woman held the sword gingerly, like she was holding a soap bubble. She ran her armored fingers over the numerous crevices and cut on its surface, humming slightly as she felt the deepest set along the lower spine.

"Its heavily used, but well kept. An old sword, but these scratches are fresh," she started knowingly, feeling the deep cuts again, "These cuts here. Snowbaron Lagombi, right?"

"Yes ma'am. I used to spar with them back in my home village." The entire cabin erupted in gasps and whispers then, and Cecilia could feel blood rising to her cheeks as she felt the shocked eyes of the passengers, including Jasmine and Ain, on her back.

"At least 2 of 'em, looks like. And quit that ma'am talk, just call me Io if you need to call me something!". Cecilia's blush deepened at the jovial response, "How many times did you "spar", roughly?"

Cecilia thought for a second, counting the days in the years, then replied, "Somewhere around…780 something times I think?". The once quiet room now was alight with the sounds of absolute shock and whispers of the number.

"How many times did you win?". The hunter sounded more excited now, as did, seemingly, everyone around them.

Cecilia also caught that excitement, her initial nervousness now less apparent as she replied, "About 700 times, but 120 of those were draws, and half of the fights were when they were just little bunnies.". Behind the pressure of the gazes around her, she felt pride swell in her chest over the shock.

The hunter laughed heartily at the news to the surprise of the crowd and the warrior in question. She placed a hand on Cecilia's shoulder as her chuckle's subsided and their eyes locked. "Your name's Cecilia, right?"

"Y-yeah." She replied hastily, not used to the other hunter's closeness.

"Alright, I'll be sure to remember that name," Io started, taking a step back to turn back to her seat. She looked back at Cecilia, "And if I were you, kid, I'd be bragging a lot more.".

Cecilia opened her mouth for a nervous reply, but was stopped by the bellowing drone of the ships horn, as was all the others aboard.

Io responded immediately, "Alright, boys, this is it!", she exclaimed to the rising crowd, "Everyone up to the to the top deck!".

The populace of the cabin, having had already risen from the cry of the horn, began to shuffle up the ramp at the end of the long hall to the opened door leading to the deck. Cecilia found her place at the back of the congregation, feeling despite the pride and anxiety like she was forgetting something.

"Hey kid!", she heard exclaimed behind her. She turned to see the wolf hunter, holding the hilt of Cecilia's sword out to her, "Forgetting something?"

She quickly grabbed the hilt quickly with a rushed thank you as she sheathed it at her side and turned back to the rapidly moving line, the blush never leaving her pale cheeks. Yet, there was a smile there too as she shuffled up the ramp, hand clasped around the hilt of the old sword.

As the crowd moved forward onto the deck, she could see her first glimpse of the outside. The sky was red with the light of the setting sun, and the stars were visible underneath this dying gleam. There, just on the horizon, was their destination, finally visible after the sandstorm that forced the hunters into the belly of the ship just hours ago.

"Beautiful, isn't it?", Jasmine, who had been standing by the shorter hunter, said suddenly.

Cecilia turned at the girl's question, and then looked back at the constantly growing dot in the distance, admiring the now visible, gleaming guild hall that she would call hers in just an hour or so. "I've never seen anything like it before, at least not where I'm from."

She heard the tan hunter sigh next to her and shuffle slightly, "Look, I'm…sorry for that whole fight back there, you didn't need to be in the middle of that."

"It's fine, it wasn't your fault! I should be the one thanking you." Cecilia said politely, looking from the girl to Ain standing in the distance, feeling pride from his visible annoyance and his shifting gaze when he thought she wasn't looking, "What was that he called you back then anyway?"

Jasmine sighed again, folding one of her dreads behind her ear, "Getty. It means dirt in my people's language.". She paused for a second, then continued, "My people are nomads who frequent the village Ain lives in, his father is actually the chief of that village. He's always been a brat because the chief takes him on hunts all the time."

"At least I know to avoid that guy now, thanks. My name's Cecilia by the way, nice to meet you!"

"I doubt he'll bother you again now that he knows you're the real deal, and I'm Jasmine. Glad to finally meet a real hunter."

Cecilia took a step back and shook her hands dismissively, "No, no, I'm not… wait, what was that?", she asked suddenly, looking off to the distance.

"What?"

"That over there!". She pointed off to their right, where a fast, red blur seemed to zoom off into the sky. She looked around rapidly, trying to track the blur, but the red of the sky made it even harder to detect. In fact, the sky, and even the air around her, seemed to get redder and blurrier with every passing second. The other passengers also seemed to notice the changing environment, as the sounds of excitement quickly became paranoid whispers of panic. Cecilia and dreadlocked hunter, still pivoting their heads attentively, began backing up towards the rest of the group, which also started huddling together. Suddenly, Cecilia felt a sharp twitch in her ear, and she turned to her side to see a rapidly growing crimson dot.

"Everybody, get down!", she screamed suddenly as the blur became a great, blood red beast, swooping over the falling crowd. As it passed over them, Cecilia finally got a good glimpse of its visage. It was a great red dragon, covered in plate that turned up at the corners like daggers, with huge wheel-like wings spreading red fog and sword-like spiked claws at the end of each limb. The face was the worst part. Half of it was covered in a fluted plate like a mask, tipped with 4 curved horns and white dagger teeth, while the rest was scaled with 2 small white tusks curving up to the sides of the upper mask. The gust of wind from its pass was intense, knocking over half the crowd and pushing even Cecilia back a bit.

The crowd quickly sprang back up, now in full panic. Cecilia quickly looked back into the frightened gathering, trying to see if anyone was hurt noticing that, strangely, the wolf hunter was nowhere to be seen. "Wait, where's Ain?", she heard Jasmine ask suddenly, fear creeping into her accented voice.

Then, in the distance, they heard the screams. Cecilia immediately sprang into action, her thoughts a whirl as she pushed her way through the crowd. "Where are you going?"

She turned slightly as she reached the opposite end of the deck where the supply box was situated. "I'm gonna try to shoot it down!", she replied, picking up a set of tied bowgun ammo from the top of the stack and quickly climbing up the stairs to the upper deck followed closely by Jasmine, where the ship's captain stood staring off into the crimson fog with his binoculars.

"Can you see it?", Cecilia asked franticly, running to his side.

The captain sucked his teeth in frustration, "I can barely see a damn thing in this mist! You're not try'n ta fight the thing, are ya?"

"That's the plan.". She loaded a shot into the side mounted bowgun by the steering wheel and tied its line to the railing of the ship.

Jasmine rushed to the captain's side and held out her hand, "Can I see those binoculars?". The captain obliged, pushing the device in her hand as he regained control of the wheel.

She returned to Cecilia, who was still trying to work out the unfamiliar mechanism of the gun, and turned her newly enhanced gaze to the sky, "The captain's right, I can't see…wait, I think it's…", she stuttered, fixing the tuning of the binoculars.

Suddenly, she turned to the smaller girl and barreled into her as the dragon again blew right over the ship, almost right where their heads were. There, in the beast's arms, was Ain, still screaming, as it barreled into the mast of the ship, splitting the railing holding the sail in half and dowsing the crowd in splintered wood. The girls got up quickly and regained their positions with renewed vigor.

"Do you have it in your sights?", Cecilia asked, following the pivoting of Jasmine's gaze with the bowgun.

"Yeah, I think so," she answered, guiding the gun with a hand on the barrel, "Ok, aim!"

The two hunters held their breaths as Cecilia aimed at the dot in her reticles, praying she'd hit the beast and not its terrified victim. Her nerves were on fire, the gears in her head spinning as she clamped her hands on what she hoped was the trigger, ready to fire. Yet, in the very back of her mind, she felt an incredible surge of excitement. The feeling of a real hunter.

"Fire!"

She pulled back on the wooden trigger as hard as she could, letting the bolt rocket out of the trigger. It flew true, sailing at its target with the trailing snap of the rope like thunder behind it. The boat shook as, below deck, the other automatic bowguns, being guided by Cecilia, also fired a second after. The girls didn't breathe, couldn't, as they stared at the flying bolts sailing through the air. Then, they heard it. A piercing screech somewhere in the fog, and the snapping of the ropes going taut, and they knew they had done it. There was no time to celebrate, however, as they felt the boat being jolted in the direction of the monster.

"Its trying to pull the ship!", Cecilia exclaimed, grabbing the reel release lever next to the gun, "Quick, get the wheel!"

Jasmine turned to the steering wheel, where the captain was nowhere to be seen, and tackled it, trying to wrestle back against the beast. Looking around, she saw the captain's unconscious body, having not been able to dodge the dragon's assault. Cecilia threw her body at the lever, pushing with all her might, until finally she could feel the ancient mechanisms of the boat turning below deck. All the ropes slammed back against the screaming monster, knocking it out of the air and dragging it against the desert sands below. Finally, the beast was in full view of the boat's passengers, thrashing on its back with Ain flopping around on its belly.

Jasmine sprang into action then. She slid down the railings of the stairs leading to the upper deck and grabbed a life preserver, throwing it down to the boy below while her other hand clutched its line.

"Quick, Ain! Hold on!", she exclaimed, both hands on the line now as the boy fumbled with the ring, shoving it down around his waist at the monster thrashed with its bladed claws slicing through the air.

Just as Jasmine began to pull him up, the beast had finally cut itself free of the arrows and began to advance back on the panicking boy. He slammed hard on the side of the ship as Jasmine pulled with all her might. Normally, she would be strong enough on her own to pick up a single person, but one covered in heavy plate armor like that… Suddenly, she felt another body around her, and Ain's weight felt like half as much. She turned and next to her, outside of the crowd that grew around her, was Cecilia, pulling back hard on another rope connected to the ring. With one big tug, the duo launched the boy up and over the railing of the ship as the dragon below slammed into the side of the boat, knocking everyone over.

After a second or two, the hunters groggily got up, visibly shaken from the drastic turn of events.

"What the hell is that thing?", Jasmine asked frightenedly, looking over the railing into the sand where the dragon was nowhere to be seen.

Cecilia shook her head dismissively, "It doesn't matter now. Jasmine, I need you to get everyone back below deck!"

"What about you?"

"I don't…", Cecilia started, looking around the ship for some ex machina that would save the crowd and herself. Looking up to the broken, jagged sail railing, she found her answer, "I have a plan, but I have to do it alone!"

"You're going to fight that thing?!", Jasmine asked incredulously, "That's crazy, you'll die!"

"If we don't repel it, it'll keep slamming into the ship until nothing's left!". Cecilia looked away from the girl, staring intently into the distance, trying to catch a gleam of the monster's armor, "If you hear it land on the ship and I'm not back down, get Io."

The other hunter hesitated for a few moments, staring indecisively at the smaller girl, before she scooped up the still shocked Ain, "Alright everybody, you heard her, back beneath the ship!", she exclaimed, corralling the small group still up top back through the set of doors leading below.

Once everyone had evacuated, including the body of the poor captain, she began her scheme. She removed her parka and pulled her sword from its sheath at her side, looking left and right trying to catch a glimpse of her opponent. Just as she wrestled the arms of the coat off, she felt the gust to her right, rolling quickly out of the way as the dragon again swooped down to pick her off the ship.

Heart racing, she quickly tied the arms of the jacket around the blade of the sword. Running to the tied section of the mast, she began to wave her makeshift flag in the air.

"Here, I'm here!", she screamed, flicking the flag back and forth vigorously as she saw in front of her another billowing cloud of red fog rapidly approaching.

She ducked immediately, her sword falling to her side as the dragon blasted over her, its claws digging hungrily into the wood of the mast right where her head had been just seconds ago. She let herself fall to the ground, crawling around the side of the mast to where she had dropped the shield she had been wearing on her back the entire ship. As she rose and equipped her shield, she heard the mast scream under its own weight. Her plan working as smoothly as she could have hoped it would, she stood, shield up over her chest and eyes staring off into the distance. For several painfully long minutes, she stood praying that her thoughts were valid, that the dragon would come from the front, that she would survive this. That's when she saw it, just ahead. The billowing cloud of red, like a ball of fire, quickly advancing on her, right where she need it. She grinned just a little.

"Now!", she whispered sharply to herself.

With a quick twist of her body, she flicked her shield around and let go. The dragon was just in front of the railing when the shield, flying straight, slammed into the hook attached to the rope holding up the mast. She swore she could feel the beast's breath on her face as the great pole of the mast, cut through by the monster's claws, gave out under its own weight. It fell like an axe into the monster, the jagged metal and wood of the split railing slamming into its side. It screamed as it toppled over, mast still embedded into it as it barreled forward. It slammed into the girl, smashing her into the railing behind her while raining the same red cloud over her whole body.

She slumped against it, her vision fading in and out as blood trickled down her face. She tried to move but found the act impossible, though, she was able to muster a weak smile as she sat broken against the hard wood. She felt herself falling again against the floor now, her consciousness fading.

"I…did it.", she said weakly, her head splitting with pain.

As the world started to leave her behind, she thought she could feel heavy footsteps shaking the boards beneath her. She shifted her eyes up to their corners. Through the blur that the world was now to her, her eyes adjusted to the heavy white figure walking towards her and the dragon. The smile never left her lips as her vision finally faded.

…

Before she even opened her eyes more than a crack, she already wanted to scream. Her body was wracked with pain, so much so that she could feel herself softly convulsing. She bit her lip to try to stifle it, but she could even feel her teeth piercing the skin through the unyielding torment. Through the tears flooding her eyes, she saw an off-white blur rushing to her side, and suddenly, the pain was instantly gone, leaving behind only a blooded lip and a headache. She breathed heavily, like she had been underwater for those terrible moments. She looked up at her savior, with a syringe still in the IV bag.

She was a bizarre looking woman. She looked no older that Cecilia, yet she had pure white hair tied back in a short tail, with a single bang of crimson hair hanging over a portion of her tan face, illuminated by the moonlight outside. She had piercing, golden eyes, like the hunter from the ship, with 3 deep scars running from under the side of her chin to just below her nose. She was tall, with a jersey jacket of white and red covering a simple burlap shirt. Around her neck looked to be a dog collar with silver spikes running around its length, and 2 dog tags on the leash ring.

"I see someone's up," she remarked in a familiar voice, turning from the bag to the weakened hunter next to her, "you got pretty messed up by that thing."

"I…o?"

"Yeah, it's me.", she replied with a soft smile.

Cecilia swallowed dryly. "What…happened? Where…am…I?", she asked, surprised by how incredibly weak she sounded.

The woman took a seat on the bed Cecilia found she was laying on, "Do you know what a Gore Magala is?"

Cecilia nodded lightly, and the hunter continued, "The thing that attacked the ship was like that. A Magala carries a disease called Frenzy on its scales, which it spreads around to kill its prey. What attacked was a Yogoa Magala, a one-in-a-billion chance encounter. It's a deviant form with a disease so potent it could've killed everyone aboard that ship."

The hunter paused, then carried on, "But it didn't, thanks to you. That mast cut into an organ on its back called a Nidus sac, which lets it control the disease. The red fog had already infected everyone aboard, if you hadn't pierced the sac when you did, everyone on board would be dead, including your friend there," she said, pointing at Jasmine, who Cecilia now noticed had been sitting by her bed the whole time.

Cecilia let another smile creep onto her face at the news, looking over at the sleeping girl on the chair. She looked back up at the other hunter and saw that she had a heavy frown plastered on her face. She tried to shift in her bed but noticed that her whole body was as unresponsive as it was during her convulsion. Io noticed her discomfort and sat her up back on the bed. She was scared now, she could barely even hold up her head without effort.

"What…"

"Yeah, that's the bad news," Io started, shifting back to her perch at the girl's side, "You're in a hospital in Val Habar, kid. When you got knocked back, a huge dose of the virus got basically injected right into you. I won't sugar coat this, Cecilia."

Cecilia held her breath as Io turned to look her in the eyes, "The doctors have done all they can, but you…you only have a couple hours tops."

Her heart sunk to her stomach with every syllable Io said, even though she already knew in her heart that's what she was going to say. She felt even more tears welling in her eyes, she couldn't, wouldn't even look at the other hunter. Every thought she could be thinking then raced through her aching head at once, but none of it made sense. All the pride and happiness she had just felt was completely gone, and all that was left was…numb.

"I can help you, though."

Cecilia's eyes shot up at those words, breaking straight through her stupor.

The hunter continued, "I said the doctors can't help you, never said a thing about me. But I can't cure you right now, so I waited till you woke up to tell you about it."

"Why…help? How…" Cecilia asked suspiciously.

"Weird questions for a dying girl to ask, right?", Io started with a chuckle, getting up to kneel next to Cecilia so they were at eye level, "Honestly, you're the only person I can't get a read on, and I'd like to. I wanna see what kind of hunter you'll be, but I can't if you're dead. So, I'll give you a choice.". She started talking with her hands then, gesturing in front of herself, "Like I said, I can't cure you, but I can help you get cured. Magalas always have the cures to their disease inside them, and as much damage as we did to that thing, we didn't kill it. I can buy you some time, 6 months, maybe a year, and in that time, I'll teach you to hunt it. This will be the hardest you'll probably ever work, but I get to start with a good template."

She paused for a second, then continued bluntly, "However, it'd all be easier if you just die now. Soon, you'll reach a point where not even the ancient potion I gave you will be enough to stop the pain, where I can't even help you. Before that happens, I want to give you a chance. The choice is yours, kid."

Io stared intently at the face of the fading girl, her piercing eyes looking into her soul. Cecilia felt so weak at this point. Not even the hope of life was enough of an adrenaline rush to make her feel. Her body, even her neck, was completely numb, yet she could feel the pain beginning to crawl back up her spine. If she closed her eyes right then, she felt, it would all be over, so for a moment, she did.

Io sighed, standing back at full height, and turned her back to the girl to head towards the door of the small room. As the wolf hunter passed the girl's arm, however, she felt a sharp tug on the sleeve of her jacket. She turned to see Cecilia sitting forward on the bed, a look of pure will on her face as she gripped the jacket with her clammy, shaking hands.

"Please," she started, tears rolling down her pale face, "I want…I…want."

She wanted to live. She wanted to be a hunter, she wanted to be like her mother. She wanted to feel like she did on the ship, aiming her bowgun into the viral fog at an invisible dragon. Through fear, paralysis, weakness and unrelenting pain, she knew what she wanted. She wanted help.

Io gripped her shoulders and pushed her back gently against the bed, "Alright, calm down!"

She looked the girl in the eyes visibly excited as she clasped the girl's hand, "That's what I like to hear, kid! You won't regret this probably! Now, my new apprentice," Cecilia could see her dagger like teeth now, gleaming in the light of the moon outside, "Close your eyes."


End file.
